DrW

Me and my son were on our way from Lubbock to some National Parks in Colorado and Utah for a week of vacation. About 15 miles after Santa Rosa, my Ford Windstar blew its transmission. AAA sent a tow truck that towed us back to Santa Rosa. The repair shop said it would at least take half a week to get all the parts and do the repair, which would have essentially killed our vacation plans. I called the tow truck again (as AAA would pay for 100 miles per incident) and asked him if he could tow us to Albuquerque; I would pay for the charge beyond 100 miles. Unfortunately, the tow truck had only 1 passenger seat. Thus, my son had to sit on the floor of the cabin for 100 or so miles; he survived. In Albuquerque, we found a repair shop specializing on transmissions. However, even they would need a few days to fix it. What to do about our trip? Fortunately, close to our two-star motel was a four/five-star hotel with a car rental. The selection was not great, but we got a Kia Sportage with which we were able to do the trip we had planned. Returning to Albuquerque, the van was fixed for our trip home. This was 7 years ago. The Windstar is still alive, now driven by my son. If he and his friends get together, he is the only one who does not drive a truck (after all, this is Texas). Strangely enough, his friends appear to have accepted his choice. A year ago, when finishing high school, his classmates (I assume, some females were involved) decorated the van very elaborately and labeled it "Swagger Wagon".

You underestimate my familiarity with the history of this site; I have been lurking for quite a while. I have to admit that I did not see the comment by B-man as ironical; my apologies if it was meant that way. And I would still like DC Tom to give me an example where a single study overturned the settled science.

No. Whatever side you are on, a single study never "settles the science".

This is very funny, but is clearly a parody. For me, the mother downing the drink is a clear giveaway. And I could not find the video anywhere on the nextgenamerica.com web site.

I am with you on that.

I sincerely hope that you made this statement tongue-in-cheek. There is a significant percentage of Iranians who oppose their current regime. These were the people that started the protests in Iran, which are still ongoing. Why do you want to kill all these people? Why not support the protesters instead?

This. The Great Lakes in upstate New York generate a microclimate that makes a prediction often difficult. Here in West Texas where the meteorologists have to deal only with large-size weather patterns (the nearest source of significant amounts of water is 500 miles away, the nearest mountain range more than 200 miles), the predictions even for 4-5 days ahead are usually spot-on. And I don't mean predictions as "no precipitation", because that is true for more than 98% of the time, but such as wind direction and wind speed.

In our college (and probably everywhere else), the evaluations students give for their professors consist of a grade and an optional written comment. Until a few years ago, the written comments on the paper questionnaires were entered into the computer by departmental staff. For a few years, I was in charge of this process. The crazy thing: A student left his/her phone number in the comments for the professor, with some encouragement to contact him/her. Of course, this comment was not forwarded to the professor. Now the evaluation of written comments occurs via computer, by "cloud". I wonder if they would catch this issue.

Dust devils. I had seen a few when visiting Australia, especially around Ayers Rock (now Uluru). However, before moving to West Texas, I did not know how strong they could be. Case 1 (which I had to observe): A 450 pound playground structure in our backyard; my son (about 5 at that time) and my father-in-law were playing close to it. The wind had not been remarkable (for West Texas standards, 10-20 mph appears normal). Suddenly, a dust devil lifts up the playground structure and moves it by about 6 feet. Very fortunately, neither my son nor my father-in-law were too close to be hit. The next day we anchored the structure with concrete. Case 2 (which I did not observe personally): I returned from a one-week-conference; we had invited my mother-in-law for that time to look after the kids, as my wife is also working full-time. Upon my return, I saw that two of the three 12-ft-trees in our driveway were gone. My first reaction: Mother-in-law had another accident (she had totaled my wife's car on a previous visit) and mowed down the trees. However, all our cars were fine. Thus, a dust devil must have uprooted the two trees.

In the mid-1990s, when I lived in Rochester and my then-girlfriend, now-wife was in Montreal, we went to Maine for the summer vacation. It was great. We canoed a lot, and especially Katahdin and Acadia were impressive. The next year we went to Newfoundland, and that was even better. We saw icebergs floating southward and more whales than in Maine (sometimes you could spot them from the shore). One of the highlights was the "bird rock" in Cape St. Mary's, with hundreds of gannets, razorbills, murres, and kittiwakes.

January 2000, still living in Rochester. Wife and I had been to Mendon Ponds Park with our 10 months old son for some sledding. On the I-390 back to Rochester road conditions were not ideal, about an inch of snow/ice/slush. Traffic was, on average, perhaps a bit too fast for the conditions, but everything went smoothly... Until a state trooper who had been parked on the side of the road saw something that must have caught his attention (I do not know what). He turns on all his lights and accelerates toward the driving lanes. Panic ensues. A crash ahead of us on the lane left of us, another one right of us. I just stay on my lane and get through it safely. In the end, I do not think that anybody was seriously injured. Even in case of a crash, we should have been relatively safe as I was driving my second "Yank Tank" (as the Aussies would call it), a Pontiac Safari full-size station wagon (the first had been an Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser).

Written from the point of view of the bacon: "There was a time when bacon sandwiches Were everyone's favourite snack I'm delicious when I'm crunchy Even when I'm almost black So why you make a soup with me I just can't understand It seems so bloody tasteless Not to mention underhand"

The Beatles "Savoy Truffle" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVfiA9QGAg0

One of the few recorded instances where FZ features a violinist (Jean-Luc Ponty)

And now for something completely different...

In memory of Jessi Zazu, frontwoman of Those Darlins, who died last week of cancer. She was 28.

In memory of Grant Hart, drummer and sometimes songwriter and lead vocalist of Hüsker Dü, one of the first bands of the American indie/alt rock scene. I always preferred his songs over Bob Mould's. He passed away on Wednesday at the age of 56 due to cancer.

The Scaramanga Six There are some songs I like better, but the audio on youtube is not very good. In some cases, there is no video:

Sorry that I am a bit late with my comment, but I do not have much time during the day. So, richstadiumowner, you (or the blogger you quote, with or without out any further inquiry on your side) chose Chile as example of a well-working economy. Interestingly, the Chilean system looks much more European than US-American. After the Pinochet regime turned over the power to a democratically-elected government somewhere around 1990, the first two presidents were from the Christian Democratic Party, which is ideologically close to Merkel's CDU in Germany. Their goal was to establish a "social market economy", similar to the one in Germany. The Chilean presidents from 2000 to 2010 were socialists, and when you look at the colorful graphs in the blog, the economy still improved. One item the blog emphasizes is the improvement in health care. The Chilean system mandates health insurance; about 80% of the population is enrolled in the government plan; 20% have opted out and selected private insurance. I could also go on about the investments the Government did to the education system. Now, I would ask richstadiumowner to tell me again why Chile is a good example how to run the US economy.

That’s right: the Times headline equally well could have read, “Thanks to President Trump, 35% of Colleges See Increase in Foreign Applicants.” The Times long ago gave up on being a respectable newspaper. It is now, purely and simply, an organ of the Democratic Party. While so far I have only been lurking on this site, this post drove me over the edge. B-Man, did you read the original source or did you just cut and paste some right-wing blog? If you would have consulted the sources, they would have told you that in recent years applications to US colleges by foreign students have been steadily increasing (with, for the first time, more than a million foreign students admitted in 2016). Thus, the fact that for most colleges this year's numbers are level or are going down is indeed worth reporting and a matter of concern for our universities.

The Prisoner Red Dwarf Monty Python's Flying Circus Ab Fab (Absolutely Fabulous) Urmel aus dem Eis ("Urmel from the ice") - a German TV puppet show from around 1969 about a baby dinosaur that had survived the dinosaur extinction by being frozen in a glacier OK, all of the above shows are European, although I watched most of them after coming to the US a long time ago. Restricting it to US TV offerings: Law & Order (the original) How It's Made (OK, it is mostly Canadian) Hank of the Hill (I live in Texas now for nearly 15 years) Earth 2 (I know, in the end the story did not go anywhere, but I still remember many of the scenes) The Man in the High Castle

Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports - "Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports" Credited to the Pink Floyd drummer, but all songs are written by Carla Bley (remember "Escalator over the Hill"?) and most are sung by Robert Wyatt (ex-Soft Machine). Need humor in music? Here it is. Robert Wyatt - "Rock Bottom" Beautiful and haunting. Cardiacs - "Songs for Ships and Irons", "Sing to God" Enigmatic lyrics at speeds between punk and hymn. The United States of America - "The United States of America" Early (1968) psychedelics with electronics and strings instead of guitar. Some funny songs ("Wooden wife"). Frank Zappa - "The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life " While Zappa is not really "obscure", this recording includes some gems. I especially like the stripped-down cover version of "Purple Haze" (recorded during a sound check), which actually includes the line "excuse me, while I kiss this guy", together with smooching sounds. The Flock - "The Flock", "Dinosaur Swamps" While most credit for early Rock/Jazz/Pop fusion goes to Chicago (Transit Authority) or Blood, Sweat and Tears, The Flock had their unique style featuring Jerry Goodman on violin.